Knowledge Will Bring You The Opportunity To Make A Difference

Education comes first. Knowledge will bring you the opportunity to make a difference, as quoted by Claire Fagin. Driver education should especially not be an exception from this age old quote, since it promotes valuable knowledge. Although driver education is a requirement in most states, there are states like Alabama and Minnesota that allow this type of education to be exempted, which inevitably corresponds to higher accident rates. Sadly, even though there are more states where students have received driver education, accidents are still prominent. I believe that even though driver education is the first step, I think that a real, underlying problem is that there isn’t enough proper testing of the material learned in driver education, where an increase in both of these factors would reduce fatalities and deaths.

An initial goal would be to increase the amount of people that are willing to take a driver education course in US states where education is optional. I’m able to acknowledge that if most individuals are given optional extra work to better achieve their success, they’ll avoid it. For instance, if students are given optional homework to complete before a test, chances are the majority of people wouldn’t fulfill this task; this analogy compares to how people believe that when driving education isn’t necessary, they won’t do it because they’ll still earn their driver’s license regardless. This is why driving education should be mandatory in all states: to ensure the first basic step is being fulfilled. But, I strongly believe the purpose of driving education can still fall short in numerous ways, due to an increase of technology, which aligns with a decrease in work ethic. With driving education that is online, I believe that only proper online courses, including DmvEdu.org, should be tolerated; online courses in each state should be checked for quality lessons and reviews. When driving courses are not professionally checked, they may not be certified to teach students driver education, since the information they’re providing may not cover every crucial lesson, which would result in accidents from a lack of knowledge. Additionally, when online drivers courses are not professionally checked, that means that some driver education courses that aren’t unique and consist of just a lot of reading will be accessible, where these courses would make students prone to checking answers online during unit assessments, without acknowledging the information that was just presented. To encourage students from not cheating, material should be laid out in an easy-to-read and understandable format, with a video at the end of each unit to sum up the reading. After the video, there should be a quiz at the end of each unit specific to the video, so that curriculum isn’t as easy to search up. I also believe a smart move would be to lock the device temporarily while the unit test is being completed, so students aren’t allowed to switch tabs on their devices to search up answers. This way, the unit exam will accurately be able to depict if a student grasped the material or was just mindlessly skipping; if a student didn’t pass the unit exam, they will have to review the unit’s material again. This methodology would ensure all students are understanding the material, which would let them know more about the laws of the road and cause less accidents.

Moreover, I believe that at least one type of these online proper driving courses should be available in each state. Since students in high school everywhere are bombarded with assignments, assessments to study for, and balancing a social life, they may not have the extra time to attend an outside driver education school. This would lead students to skip out on driver education in states that don’t prioritize this education; with an educational driving course online, students can work at their own pace and be more willing to put effort with a more flexible option. However, in order to ensure less accidents regarding learning with in-person schools, I feel that the curriculum should be precisely taught with pop-quizzes, random questions from learned material, and frequent reviews. This ensures students are actually paying attention to the material through re-examination and practice measures.

By discussing pertinent topics like how driving education should be mandatory in all states and how driving courses should encompass certain factors, I’m highlighting how just covering these basic steps would allow students to deeply process their education and thus, take steps towards eliminating the number of future accidents.

The reason that in-person and online education should be exemplified in this manner is to guarantee that students are susceptible to processing and understanding the dangers driving can uphold. By participating in driving practices straight away without attending a drivers education course, relevant lessons about harmful activities are skipped on. With driver education, the topic of alcohol and drugs impairing abilities and illegal BAC driving levels are covered. By skipping this education, important knowledge is skipped, like how being high on marijuana and throwing cigarettes onto the road are illegal acts. By being unaware of these illegalities, people are likely to throw lighted cigarettes out their window, where the flame would quickly catch onto multiple vehicles and cause numerous accidents. To avoid the possibility of smoking or being high when driving, installed vehicular smoke detectors can detect this smoke and will trigger a car alarm. Simultaneously, the police can be silently notified and they will find the vehicle with the alarm based on how far the detector is; the police can then inquire the driver about their habits. This same process would occur with the addition of a MQ3 sensor, a sensor that can detect the ethanol from alcohol that is in the air of your car.

There are still many ways to avoid casualties and deaths even after covering driver education. I think that planning ahead can greatly minimize driving hazards. Even though getting ready or eating meals in the car are attempts to save time in seemingly effortless tasks, the supposed benefits would be meaningless when an accident results. By not multi-tasking and instead spending extra time fulfilling these activities at home, the lives of others aren’t endangered. Another idea would be figuring out the freeways to take and planning out directions before driving, so that our attention isn’t diverted from the road as the GPS is being used. These distractions can easily be avoided by utilizing the Do Not Disturb feature offered on phones. By using this feature, the owner’s phone is locked until the car has stopped moving for a while, where notifications and calls on the user’s phone won’t be seen while driving, so an urge to gravitate towards devices would be removed. On the topic of apps, a major step that can be implemented would be downloading an app that is accessible for all states that would grant rewards for all ages. The app would automatically collect points for each few minutes someone drives without using their phone, which is detected using the phone’s touch sensor capabilities. By having this app be for all ages, teens can be given points as well, so it motivates drivers of all ages to drive safely. These points can then be spent on rewards, like eating at restaurants or providing money for specific supermarkets; these rewards would encourage drivers to not use their phones while driving. Besides this point, I also believe that the repairmen that check the state of someone’s car should call the car owner’s local DMV and the police if the car smells strongly of drugs, alcohol, and/or marijuana. The car owner would then be interrogated about their habits and would have to retake the permit test, which covers drug and alcohol usage. If the driver fails the permit test, DMV authorities would temporarily revoke their license and decide suitable protocols from there.

I think learning about lifestyle alterations of those with a deceased or impaired family member are fundamental lessons that open the minds of those that perceive distracted driving as an overexaggerated concern. I think that schools should display videos or assign readings of the consequences of distracted driving or have a guest speaker discuss how their life has changed because of a distracted driving incident.

As part of my dual enrollment health class, my instructor dictated that this class was our most important one, since we would take classroom information and manage our lives with said info. For a whole week, we watched saddening videos about how a child’s dream of being an athlete was crushed after he became paralyzed when a distracted driver hit him; about how a women walking her dog was struck by a car and lost functioning in her limbs; about how a man texting his wife ended up in a ditch where some men were working. After watching those videos, we had to pick which story impacted us the most and share that story with our loved ones, in order to preach the importance of safe driving. I continuously preach the dangers of being distracted to my family, but also to my friends that have been driving for a while.

I’m so adminant about spreading awareness on the effects of distracted driving because I’ve seen the consequences right in front of me. One morning, as my mother was driving on the freeway, a car in the left lane next to us started driving recklessly. I peered over and saw the man was texting on his phone. My family started to decrease our speed so we wouldn’t be next to the car but at that moment, the driver must’ve pushed down on the gas without being aware of doing so. As that car next to us zoomed by at 75 mph while being distracted, the car kept swerving into our lane and the original left lane. But, with the car accelerating so quickly, the car experienced a rollover car accident further ahead of us, where the car flipped 3 times towards the right side of the road. Although my family couldn’t abruptly brake since we didn’t want to cause an accident for drivers behind us, we had to quickly merge lanes to the left to avoid crashing into the rolling car. Even though I so badly wanted to step outside of my car to help the man in the accident, the timing was so bad that we couldn’t afford to pull over on the freeway, since we might’ve gotten further involved in the accident. As I turned around in my seat, I saw people further behind me pulling over, running towards the flipped car as the police approached. The site of the car flipping over will forever be engraved in my brain and will continually encourage me to be a safe driver.

Seeing this accident in elementary school influenced me to become part of the School Safety Patrol Program during 5th grade. I was selected as a role model to others, so I started becoming trained and supervised by police officers. I learned that as an older student, I had to switch between four roles each month in order to control the people and the roads. On some weeks, my role involved indicating to younger students when it was safe for them to cross the street. Other days, I’d be holding stop signs on either side of the road so drivers could properly brake. I additionally had the responsibility of watching and reporting vehicle violations. My experience taught me the importance of safety in our lives everyday and that driving is not a careless matter.

I think too many people assume that they don’t need to be great drivers, as long as they are aware of other drivers, which explains why many people participate in irresponsible acts. With this mindset, some people may feel like their habits are an exception, so they record videos of themselves to send to their friends. By doing this, they aren’t only promoting this behavior to others, but are endangering the people around them. Upon receiving a driving video, I wait a while to ensure my friends aren’t driving anymore, before I give them a call. Usually, I question my friends about why they decided to make a video, especially when they lack experience as a minor, and I then reiterate one of the distracted driving stories I learned about in my health class. After hearing the potential consequences, my friends begin to acknowledge that they need to make changes to their habits in order to create a safer world. Adding on, I’ve encouraged the welfare of the drivers around me by correcting the ideologies of my parents. Yes, I believe my parents are wiser than me and have more road knowledge than I do, but I’m persistent on fixing bad habits. Both of my parents like to drive for long periods of time with one hand on the road, which bothers me quite a bit, since I know even this small alteration could cause great effects. At first, when I pointed this issue out, my parents would chuckle and say they didn’t need two hands because they were experienced drivers. However, when I informed them that if an emergency maneuver was needed, such action couldn’t be executed fast enough, which would result in increased possibilities of a crash; being outspoken swayed the thoughts of my parents and now, they barely succumb to their old habits.

In order to protect the lives of others based on my driving, I’ve taken extra steps to improve. As I’m on the shorter side, even though it’s not preferred, I use a cushion or a pillow when I drive, since I don’t want my inability to see parts of the road to affect those around me. I feel like this protocol is my responsibility, my responsibility to protect those around me. On another note, I’m aware that many people that have their license didn’t complete the 50 hours of driving prerequisite, with 10 hours being at night and 6 hours being with a professional, which is mandatory in California. As long as the hours can be signed off, people assume any amount of practice will suffice. This is why I decided to spend more than 6 hours practicing with a professional driver; I wanted to improve as much as possible for the people around me, even if I had fulfilled the requirements. In order to further protect those around me, I decided to drive more than 10 hours at night prior to taking my driving test, because more practice never hurts. I didn’t want to be the driver that others had to be worried about and I certainly didn’t want to contribute to the number of accidents.

By taking educational courses that properly allow us to learn crucial material and by partaking in safe tasks in our vehicle, we can go on to be examples to other drivers as we demonstrate driving in a safe manner. By adding safety devices that monitor smoke and alcohol, along with sharing our beliefs and experiences with loved ones to help them remove bad habits, we, as a society, can progress and eliminate the number of accidents. Knowledge about all these different aspects will allow us to be a better person than we previously were and enable us to make a difference in the world we live in, all of which confirms the quote stated by Claire Fagin.